The Nigerian labor force, like that ofmany countries in Africa, is heavily concentrated inagriculture. According to World Bank reports, theagricultural sector in Nigeria grew by about 6.8 percentannually from 2005-2009. This report focuses on thecharacteristics of the agricultural sector and ruralhouseholds in Nigeria, and their implications for poverty.This report examines the relationships using nationallyrepresentative data from the general household survey panel(GHS), 2010-11. It was found that an elasticity of povertyreduction with respect to agricultural productivity ofbetween 0.25 to 0.3 percent implying that a 10 percentincrease in agricultural productivity will decrease thelikelihood of being poor by between 2.5 and 3 percent.Agriculture in Nigeria is varied across regions, and, notsurprisingly, most households involved in the sector residein rural areas. The report is organized as follows: sectionone gives introduction. Section two gives brief descriptionof selected agricultural programs and the targets ofgovernment expenditure in the sector in recent decades.Section three presents detailed profile of rural householdsand the composition of economic activities with a particularfocus on agriculture. Section four examines the determinantsof agricultural productivity, and highlights the factors(land ownership, input use, labor, plot management, landtenure, and household characteristics) most important forsmall-holder productivity. Section five concludes.
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